Future Honors Seminars | Wittenberg University

The Demoralized Schoolhouse (Yontz – EDUC)

Contemporary research suggests that American educators have moved from a feeling of deprofessionalization to being demoralized. This course provides an exploration of and an opportunity to analyze the professional dissatisfaction in our nation’s schoolhouses. Readings will be focused on contemporary educational policy, teacher career trajectory, science of teacher selection, and how teachers’ moral centers intersect with life in the schoolhouse. Recognizing a relationship between education and social progress, students will examine the influences policy, economics, and history have on opportunities for renewal of our demoralized schoolhouses.

The Psychology of Happiness (Davis – PSYC)

Introduction to psychological research on the causes, correlates, and outcomes of happiness. We will critically examine theory and research on happiness as well as a wide range of related topics including meaning in life, strengths and virtues, coping, authenticity, gratitude, flow, spirituality, and optimism. Readings, discussions and weekly reflections will help students to explain the difference between hedonic and eudaimonic perspectives on well-being along with the theory and research behind psychological well-being interventions. Participants will learn to apply psychological research and principles to improve their own lives and to critically evaluate theory and research on the psychology of happiness. The course culminates in a major paper/project related to the course content.

Molecular Medicine: Technology, Practice & Patient Care LO3/LO7 (Goodman – BIOL/BMB) - new seminar

Explores the molecular basis for disease and disease therapies, focusing on technologies of molecular medicine and how an emphasis on “fixing” health problems affects health care delivery. Examples will come from systems such as cancer, viruses, vaccines, genomic medicine, and CRISPR-based genetic modification.

Recipes for Disaster: Food in Postcolonial Literature LO2/LO5NW (Starr – ENGL) – new seminar

Though scenes of eating and drinking are so common in literature that they are easily overlooked, this course turns attention to food to analyze how colonialism impacts bodies, diets, and identities. In this course on global postcolonial literatures, we’ll explore consumption in novels, poetry, and films from Africa, the Caribbean, South America, and the Pacific Islands. We’ll consider culinary traditions and crops that connect Indigenous groups to their ancestral environments; issues of food sovereignty and security; local and industrial food production; and histories of the sugar plantation system. Beginning with Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, we’ll examine colonial views of excess and starvation and the mythology of the cannibal. From there, we’ll turn to African and Caribbean women writers who depict gendered dimensions of appetite and consumption. These texts will include Tsitsi Dangarembga’s novel, Nervous Conditions, and Safiya Sinclair’s poetry collection, Cannibal. The course will progress to neo-colonialism and tourism in the Pacific Islands, focusing on Chamorro poet-activist Craig Santos Perez’s concept of “gastrocolonialism,” which describes how colonial and corporate foods replace local diets. Over the course of the semester, students will compose short response papers, develop a research project, and will contribute creative “recipes for resistance” to our collaborative anti-colonial cookbook.

Chronic Illness & the Healthcare System LO6/LO7 (Pederson – BIOL)

There are many facets to chronic illness – physiological (what is happening in the body), psychological (how does the person feel?), financial (healthcare, testing, and medications), getting an accurate diagnosis and then proper treatment. This class will examine these issues through the lens of quality of life for both the chronically ill patient and their family. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to describe the physiological underpinnings of a variety of chronic illnesses, communicate effectively about chronic illness and the healthcare system, and convey the impact of chronic illness on the individual and those around them.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game LO2/LO9 (Hill – EDUC)

This course will examine the rhetoric and collective storytelling of sport – amateur, collegiate and professional – on a global and local scale. Students will consider the personal, social, economic, historical and political ramifications of these sport narratives. Course readings will come from a wide variety of genres, including nonfiction, fiction and journalism. Attention will also be given to multimedia narratives including visual art, photography, documentary film and podcasts. The course will be team-oriented with full class discussion, student-led conversations, written work, reflection sessions and an independent research project.

Voices of Addiction LO3/LO9 (G. Davis – PSYC) new seminar

This course explores the psychology behind addiction. Using a combination of memoirs, essays, and academic literature, students will delve into understanding different perspectives of addiction. These voices will come from different ethnic, cultural, and geographical backgrounds. As a result of this course students will develop an understanding of the complex web of social, cultural, and biological influences in becoming an addict. Additionally, we will dive into historical and modern perspectives on how addiction is viewed by non-addicts and the impact those perspectives have on resources and treatment development for individuals dealing with addiction. The course is reading intensive and will culminate in a major paper/project related to course content.

From Pixels to Power-ups: Decoding the Artistic Dimensions of Video Games LO2/LO10 (Gimenez-Berger – ART) new seminar

In this course, we will explore the significance of video games as dynamic artifacts. Through the lens of art history, we will dissect the visual allure, narrative complexities, and societal values embedded in these virtual landscapes, exploring their role as cultural products that both are shaped by, and reshape, our experience of the world.

Religion, Animals & Being “Human” LO2/LO10 (Proctor – RELI)

This course provides an in-depth exploration of the complex interactions between religious traditions, ideas and practices surrounding animals and understandings of “human” identities and natures. Course will treat topics including animal rights activism, vegetarianism, animal sacrifice, ritual practice among animals, religious debates over human evolution, the animal “roots” of religious belief and practice and recent theorizations of the “posthuman”.

When Bad Words Happen to Good People LO2/LO10 (Mattison - ENGL)

How does a swear word become a swear word? Does it start out decent and then take a wrong turn, or was it notorious from the start? And why do we react so strongly to a certain grouping of letters? It's just a word, isn't it? This class will embark on a historical, cultural, and etymological journey to discover how our dirty words got that way, and what effect they can have on us, our health, and our relationships. This class will (not surprisingly) contain mature language and themes.

Honors Program